Gopinath Munde’s supporters booked for beating chopper pilot

Ten BJP workers and supporters of MP Gopinath Munde were on Sunday booked for allegedly thrashing a pilot of a helicopter after he refused to fly the sitting MP from Beed city to another place, police said.

According to police, Munde, who is seeking a fresh term, had come to the Police Grounds in the city on Thursday by a helicopter from Mumbai.

The BJP leader was supposed to go to Vida village in Kaij tehsil to address a rally where the villagers had made a helipad for Munde’s helicopter to land near the rally spot.

However, the helicopter’s pilot refused to fly from Beed to the rally spot in Vida village citing fuel shortage and other reasons.

A BJP youth leader, who was present at the spot, said Munde left the police grounds in a huff after the helicopter pilot refused to fly further and went to Vida village by a four-wheeler.

The supporters had told the pilot that he should have carried their ‘saheb’ to the rally spot. To which the pilot then apparently replied that he (Munde) might be ‘saheb’ for the supporters, not for him. The supporters were angered by this and three of them allegedly beat the pilot up.

Police Inspector Dharamsing Chavan had registered a complaint against Rajendra Bangar, Swapnil Galdhar, Pravin Ghuge and other accused, who have been booked under various sections of the IPC.